This has been a fairly settled year for the club, in as much as only one speaker cancelled! As last year, the club member's rallied around and Graham filled in for us.

External events included the trip to the British Museum/Bank of England Museum and the skittles evening, both of which were well attended.

Our membership has gone down this year from 36 to 33, a reflection of the 'greying' of the club members. We have gained some new members, but lost previous ones. I have to thank you all for introducing new members to the club. The level of involvement at club meetings is also slightly up, from 191/2 to just over 20. It is very encouraging to see this sort of level continue.

Our financial position continues to be strong but this year our income no longer shows a profit over our expenses. The apparent balance between income and expenditure is only maintained by the interest accruing from our deposit account. In order to achieve the same level, without the interest from the deposit account, we would either need to raise the subscription level to £15 or increase the membership by about eight.

Next Season Social Events

The Summer Social will be the 'day trip' to Birmingham on Wednesday 17th July, taking in both a handling session at the Birmingham Museum and a trip to Matthew Boulton's house. We will be rerunning the skittles evening.

Thanks

I want to start by thanking our President, who is standing down after three years in post, Michael, for his constant support during those years. His computer wizadry is coming in very handy in producing the new membership cards for this coming season. I wish to thank our vice presidents, John, Dave and Tim for all their 'behind the scenes' work at meetings and social gatherings and our auditor Neil.

I want to thank all my fellow committee members, without whom there would be no club. I am particularly sad to be losing Frank this year, who, after serving five years on the committee must stand down in accordance with the club's constitution. Frank has been of invaluable help to the committee, by virtue of his connections in, and understanding of, the Coin business. It is due to Frank that we have had the excellent and varied series of speakers over the last five years. He is also a very able auctioneer, as was demonstrated earlier this season, where he managed to get through 240 lots, the largest number in the club auction for some years. This club owes a great deal to Frank who has now completed three terms on the committee and his experience will be sorely missed. Thank you Frank.